Jack and The Iron Maiden
by Queenbean3
Summary: In a large city Jack helps a homeless, amnesiac cyborg get her arm repaired. But when suspicious clues and strange behaviors emerge, will the samurai still be able to help her?
1. Chapter I

Disclaimer: I don't own Samurai Jack or anything related to the show. All that's mine here are a few minor OCs and one major one whom I hope doesn't come off as a Mary-Sue. Read and enjoy!

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Chapter I

It was mid day in Metro City. Skyscrapers towered over crisscrossing rows of airborne vehicles. On the ground crowds of pedestrians crammed the streets, trying to make the most of their all too brief lunch breaks. This was the time of day the food vendors waited for with the greatest anticipation. One small tavern was packed with customers, and the wait staff had their hands full trying to keep up with all the orders. There were barely enough tables and chairs to go around and there was always someone shouting to be served.

But there was one customer who stood out through his silence. He had come in alone and requested only tea. Now he sat at the counter quietly sipping his drink and paying no attention to the noise all around him. He did not state his name, but everyone already knew who he was. His face was on wanted posters all over the world and his heroic exploits were the stuff of legends. He was a wandering warrior who never lost a battle and even dared to confront the mighty tyrant Aku. His true name was a mystery, but everyone called him by the name "Samurai Jack."

There had been some arguing amongst the waitresses over who would serve him. Eventually the head waitress and queen bee of the group nominated herself and none of the others dared to go against her wishes. After fixing her blonde hair and applying extra make-up in the bathroom mirror, she put her feminine charms to work.

"Here's your tea, sir." the lovely waitress said, smiling the sweetest of smiles and leaning close to him as she placed the mug on the counter. "Is there anything else you'd like?"

Jack barely spared a glance at her. "No, thank you."

The waitress was perplexed by this simple rebuff. "Are you sure?" she tried again. "We have some excellent specials today."

This time Jack did not even look at her. Instead he picked up his mug and began to drink. Her flirtations thwarted, the waitress pouted her painted lips in frustration. Then she quickly put a false smile on. "All right, let me know if you change your mind. I'll be back to refill your tea later."

Once the waitress was gone, Jack felt much more relieved. Past experience had taught him to be cautious with women. There were too many incidents where he had been taken in by a pretty face only to be betrayed in the end. For all he knew this waitress could be a bounty hunter in disguise or a spy for Aku. Until his quest was over he could not afford to take any chances. Hoping the blonde waitress had given up on him Jack took comfort in his tea and shut out the noise around him.

However, the blonde waitress had not given up on him. Even as she was serving other patrons she was plotting her next move. She knew well that her co-workers were watching and she would not be satisfied with anything less then total victory. As promised she refilled Jack's tea and offered him a menu, but he turned her down again. She came back a third time, a bit pushier then before, and tried making small talk, but was again unsuccessful. Jack only wanted to be left alone with his tea.

Meanwhile, at another restaurant nearby, the wait staff was having a very different kind of problem. There was a vagrant rummaging about in the dumpster behind the kitchen. The person's body was completely enshrouded in a filthy cloak that had once been a tarp of some kind. With back turned and face covered by a hood, it was impossible to tell if the stranger was male or female.

The waiters and the cooks had all tried to drive the vagrant away but all of them were ignored or driven off by flying pieces of trash. The manager was the only one left, and he did not dare set foot into the alley outside. Instead he yelled from the safety of the kitchen doorway. "Hey, you! Get out of my dumpster, you dirty bum! Your stink is scaring away my customers!"

The stranger responded by tossing a soda can at him. Even though the man was twelve feet away, the can came just inches from striking him on the forehead. He yelped as it struck the door frame, then he spun around and slammed the door behind him. He snatched the first telephone he saw from the wall and quickly pushed the buttons.

"Hello, operator? Get me the police department." Minutes later, sirens were screaming down the streets. The vagrant dropped a box of rotten tomatoes at the sound, just when the manager opened the kitchen door again and scoffed. "You hear that? That's the sound of justice coming to get you!"

The vagrant narrowed his eyes under the hood, then picked a tomato up and flung it at the man. This time it was a direct hit. As the manager sputtered, the vagrant used the distraction to leap from the dumpster and escape into the shadowy alley. By the time the manager had wiped the red glop from his eyes the police drones had arrived.

Like most of Aku's forces, the police drones had very distinct insect-like attributes. From the neck down their bodies could pass as humanoid, but their heads were like those of a praying mantis with sharp mandibles, long antennae and eyes faceted with hundreds of tiny lenses. There were seven in this group, all standing above seven feet tall and totally black in color with only a few red and blue accents denoting their function as law enforcers.

"Where is the trouble, sir?" the lead drone asked in an electric monotone.

The manager felt more afraid of the police drones then he had of the stranger in his dumpster. It took a moment for him to think of an answer to the lead drone's question.

"There!" the man sputtered and pointed down the alley. "A bum was stealing food from my garbage! He's getting away!"

Seven sets of wings snapped open, seven sirens began to wail and the entire fleet took off, leaving the manager coughing on their dust.

By now, Jack had finished his tea and grown tired of the blonde waitress's advances. He got up from his stool, paid for his drink and walked out. Suddenly the noise of sirens filled the air. Instinctively Jack reached for his sword. A small fleet of police drones was speeding down the street. Had his suspicions about the waitress been correct? Did she report him to the police for the extravagant reward? Then there was the crash of a garbage can falling and the screech of a stray cat being stepped on. A dirty cloaked figure dashed out of the alleyway and shoved past Jack. Suddenly the police drones swerved and went in pursuit of the stranger.

As they flew off, their sirens blaring loudly, Jack's mind began to race. In this world, the police were subject to Aku, the ultimate evil, and therefore any people they punished were not real criminals, but innocent victims. Jack had learned many different codes of ethics from his lifetime of training among dozens of different masters, but if there was one thing they all had in common, it was the protection of the innocent.

With that in mind, Jack set off after the fleet of police drones. When he caught up to them they had cornered their prey at the back of a dead end. All of them had laser guns mounted on their shoulders and aimed at the victim within their circle. Before any of them had the chance to fire, Jack had drawn his sword and sliced four of their bug-like heads off, leaving their headless bodies to fall to the ground. As they clattered to the ground they leaked oil and sprayed sparks everywhere.

The three remaining drones and their victim gaped in shock at the samurai. In the span of three seconds the robots recognized him, identified him as the more serious offender, and changed the direction of their lasers. They opened fire on him, but Jack raised his sword and used it to deflect the blasts back at them. One by one, three more robot heads and bodies clattered on the ground in a mess of oil and sparks.

Now there was only the cloaked figure. The person was huddled on the ground with its back to Jack, making strange muttering sounds and fumbling with something on the ground. Worried, Jack approached the hooded figure. "Are you alright, sir?"

The figure threw off its hood and glared at him, and Jack immediately wished he could eat his words. This person he had mistaken for a man was actually a dirty-faced, short-haired woman. Her figure was totally disguised by her shapeless cloak, so much that it was impossible to tell at first glance what her gender was.

"First of all, don't call me sir!" she snapped. "Second of all, does _this_ look alright to you?!"

She stood up and thrust her right arm straight out in front of her; literally_._ Her forearm was made of metal and severed below the elbow, as mechanical as the drones Jack had just vanquished. Judging from the scorch marks a laser must have struck it, most likely a stray shot Jack had deflected with his sword. Now the broken limb was dripping black oil and its exposed wires were sparking. The woman's left arm, which was still intact, appeared to be fully mechanical as well.

It took a moment for Jack's brain to adjust to the series of surprises he had just witnessed. Then he put his hands together and bowed his head low. "I am deeply sorry for offending you, madam. Please forgive my carelessness."

The woman stood in silent surprise, as if she had never been apologized to before in her life. One second later she was annoyed again and waving the severed limb in front of Jack's face. "Sorry isn't gonna get my arm fixed! I don't have any money for repairs! What am I supposed to do now?"

Jack managed to duck just in time not to be swatted by her broken arm. "Please, calm yourself! I have money, and I am willing to pay for your repairs."

Again she seemed surprised for just an instant. Then she grumbled and put her broken arm down, much to Jack's relief. "Fine. Do you know a decent mechanic?"

He shook his head. "I do not, but this city is large. I am certain we can find one if we try."

They left the alleyway full of broken robots and returned to the street, where the woman pulled her hood back over her head. "So, where do we start?"

"I will ask someone for directions." Jack answered.

It seemed like a good plan, since there were plenty of people bustling back and forth on the sidewalk. At least one of them had to know where to find a mechanic. But when Jack tried to speak to a passing businessman he was drowned out by the man's own loud voice yelling at someone on the other end of his cell phone.

Jack tried again with about five more people, but no one bothered to stop and listen to him. It seemed they were all so busy with their own problems that he and his companion were invisible to them.

"Well, _that_ plan was a bust." the woman said dryly, as if she had known it would fail from the beginning. "What now, fearless leader?"

Jack tried not to let her attitude bother him. "I suppose we are on our own."

"Did you ever think of checking a phone book?" she suggested, her tone much the same as before.

Jack looked at her with confusion. "What is a phone book?"

She looked back at him as if that were the stupidest question she had ever heard. "It's a book with phone numbers in it. You know, a phone book? Those big thick things made of paper, with all the yellow pages?"

Jack's confused expression did not change.

She rolled her eyes. "You're kidding me. You _really_ don't know what a phone book is."

"Er…" Jack almost started answer.

"What about a phone _booth?"_

"Um…"

"Have you even seen a _phone?"_

"Well…"

The woman was now sure he was the stupidest creature on Earth. She smacked her forehead and groaned. "Oh, for the love of…You can slice robots to bits, but you don't even know what a _phone_ is? Have you been living under a _rock_ for the past hundred years?"

Before Jack could say anything in his defense, the woman pointed to a tall box with clear windows on a street corner. Someone was standing inside of it, holding one end of something to his ear and talking into the other end. The woman then proceeded to explain what the thing was as if she were talking to a trained chimp.

"There, look at that thing. _That's_ a phone booth. It's got a _wonderful_ invention called a _telephone_ inside, as well as _another_ wonderful invention called a _phone book._ Are you still with me here? People _talk_ to each other on telephones, and phone books have _names_ of people to talk to. People like _mechanics."_

Jack did not approve her disrespectful attitude whatsoever, but the explanation of the strange technology had been necessary for him to understand it. "So, what you mean to tell me is, with that device, we can find someone who can repair your arm?"

"Bingo. Now come on, he's leaving! Hurry up, before somebody else gets in!"

He followed as she dashed across the street and charged inside the glass booth. Once they were both inside she slammed the door behind them. As soon as they were inside, Jack realized that this box was not built to hold more than one person. Inside the cramped space he was standing practically on top of the woman. He also noticed that she smelled like she spent her days rolling in garbage and her nights sleeping in compost heaps, with no time for bathing in between.

She was also glaring at him dangerously. Again, Jack was confused. "What?"

"Keep your hands to yourself, buster." she growled. "I might have one fist left, but it's all I need to give you a fat lip."

"I will keep that in mind." Jack replied, attempting to inch away from her and not to say anything rude about her smell.

Just as the strange woman had said before, there was a thick book with yellow pages inside the booth with them. Jack needed no instructions on how to use a book. He opened it and began flipping through the pages, quickly discovering page upon page of alphabetized businesses and companies.

Under the letter M there was a very long list of mechanics, long enough to fill five pages. Jack decided to call the first name on the list, but as soon as he looked at the device the woman had called a 'telephone', he felt lost again.

Fortunately there was a sticker with three simple steps listed on the front. First, pick up the receiver. Second, listen for the dial tone. And third, deposit coins into the coin slot. Jack performed the first two steps correctly, but ran into a problem on step three. The only currency he had was a bag of gold nuggets, and they would not fit in the coin slot.

"Would you happen to have any coins for this machine?" he asked the woman.

She rolled her eyes. "What do I look like, a bank?"

Jack stared at the payphone, the dial tone sounding mockingly in his ear. Then he noticed another sticker on the phone that read 'Dial zero for operator assistance.' He did this, and the sound of the dial tone changed to that of an alarm bell ringing.

Suddenly a monochrome image appeared in front of him on a screen he had not noticed before. There was a bored robot looking back at him, seated behind a desk and wearing an odd headband with a microphone attached to its head.

"You've reached operator assistance." the bored robot said. "How can we assist you today?"

It took a moment for Jack to think of something to say in response. "Er, yes, I am trying to call a mechanic."

"What city?" the robot asked dully.

"Um…" Jack paused, having forgotten the name of the city he was in.

He looked at his hooded companion for help. Again she rolled her eyes at him. "Metro City."

Jack repeated the word to the operator. "Metro City."

The robot tapped some keys on a keyboard. "What listing?"

He looked at the woman again. Another eye roll. "He means the business."

Jack recited the name of the business straight from the book. "Axle's Machine Repair Shop."

The robot typed some more. "Alright, sir, I'll put you through now. Have a nice day."

"Thank you …" Jack started to say, but the image had already changed to static and the ringing noise had returned.

A few moments of this passed, and he began to worry something was wrong until a new image appeared on the screen. This time it was a rather swarthy, sweaty man with goggles on his head, holding a telephone receiver much like the one Jack was holding. He spoke in a voice that sounded like he had smoked far too many cigarettes in its lifetime "Axle's Machine Repair Shop. Axle speakin'."

"Ah! Yes! Hello, sir." Jack said quickly. "I have someone with me who has damaged her arm. Do you think you could repair it?"

"Is it a mechanical arm?" the man named Axle asked.

"Yes, sir, it is." Jack answered.

"Well, bring 'er on over and I'll take a look at it."

"I will. Thank you very much, sir."

"Yeah, no problem, bub."

Then the image went to static and the dial tone returned. Jack placed the receiver back on its hook and the screen went black. "Well, I suppose now we should go meet him."

The woman frowned. She was holding the phone book with her one hand and looking at the listing for the shop. "There's just one tiny problem. This place is on the opposite side of town. We'll have to take a bullet train to get there before nightfall."

Jack arched his eyebrows in confusion. "What is a bullet train?"

The woman stared at him in silence for a moment. Then she rolled her eyes again.


	2. Chapter II

Chapter II

Jack had never ridden a bullet train before, but as soon as he was on one, he decided he hated it. It was too loud, too fast, and so crowded that there was no room to sit. He and the homeless woman were both forced to stand sandwiched between hoards of businessmen loudly talking on their cell phones and construction workers that stank of beef, cheese and sweat. As if the woman's already putrid stench wasn't bad enough. Jack tried very hard not to breathe too much.

When they finally reached their stop half an hour later, Jack and the homeless woman set out in search of the machine repair shop listed in the phone book. After several blocks of walking, they found a small building with an old sign that read _Axle's Machine Repair Shop._

They went inside, and there was the same swarthy, sweaty man Jack had spoken two in the phone booth. He was sitting at a work table surrounded by tools and examining a piece of machinery. Somewhere in the building there was a radio playing rather loudly.

Jack decided to speak up to get his attention. "Pardon me, sir. You are the one named Axle, correct?"

The man looked up and lifted his goggles from his eyes. "Yeah, that's me. Who wants to know?"

"I called you earlier, about having an arm repaired."

"Oh, yeah! The guy from the payphone!" the swarthy man beckoned him closer. "Come in, come in, let me see this arm you need fixed."

The woman dropped her severed arm on the work table in front of Axle. The man picked it up and studied it, turned it over a few times to see it from different angles, then put it back on the table with a puzzled frown.

"This thing is a real piece of work, buddy." he said to Jack. "I ain't never seen nothin' like it before. This here tech is way more advanced then the stuff I'm used to."

"Does that mean you cannot fix it?" Jack asked.

Axle shook his swarthy head. Suddenly the woman smacked her good hand down and leaned over the work table to glare at the mechanic. "Hold on a second, mister! Your ad in the phone book says you can fix _any_ machine!"

Axle narrowed his eyes at her and raised himself up in his seat to return the glare. "This _ain't_ any machine, lady. Like I said, it's really advanced tech. You need a specialist, and arms ain't my specialty."

The woman thumped her fist on the table and everything on top of it rattled. "Then you really _can't_ fix anything!" she snapped, her angry voice rising in pitch. "You're just a lying, third-rate hack!"

Axle's voice also began to get louder. "I ain't no _liar_, lady, and I ain't no _hack_, neither! Now get outta my shop before I call the _cops_ on ya!"

Jack quickly decided it was time to intervene. "Please forgive my companion's disrespect, sir. Her broken arm has put her in a bad mood. Are there any other mechanics you know of who could help us?"

Axle glared at the woman a little longer before answering Jack's question. "You should try askin' my buddy Gizmo to look at it. He's got a shop down the street."

Jack picked up the severed arm from the table and bowed his head politely. "Thank you very much for your time, sir."

"Yeah, thanks for _nothing."_ the woman grumbled, snatching her arm away from Jack and whirling around to leave.

When they got to the shop Axle had pointed them to, the reception was much the same. Gizmo took one look at the broken arm and said "This here tech is way more advanced then the stuff I'm used to. You should try askin' my buddy Lugnut to look at it. He's got a shop down the street."

Once again the homeless woman got into an argument with the man and Jack had to quickly defuse the situation before the police were called. The same thing happened three more times, until the sun went down and all the shops closed.

By now, Jack was trying to think of some way out of the mess he'd gotten himself into. Every police drone and bounty hunter in the city was surely looking for him now. He still needed a place to eat and sleep, but he did not want to take the bullet train to find food and lodging. It looked like he would have no choice but to spend the night sleeping on the sidewalk with the unpleasant company of the foul-smelling cyborg woman.

Just as he thought that, Jack realized that the source of his problems was nowhere in sight. He looked up and down the dark street and could not see the woman anywhere. Had Fate finally decided to step in and solved his problems for him?

Then he heard her crabby voice yelling at him from somewhere. "Hey, you! Why are you just standing there? Come on, get the lead out!"

Jack heaved a deep sigh and followed her voice.

The woman was standing at the end of a dark alley. On the wall behind her was a large metal door. With her good hand she pressed a button on the wall and the door slid upward, revealing a platform inside a dimly lit shaft. Then she entered and looked back at him, expecting him to follow.

Jack arched his eyebrows in confusion. He thought about asking where they were going, but remembered her tendency to roll her eyes and insult him any time he asked a question. So he stood on the platform next to her and remained silent. There was a panel on the wall with many more buttons on it. The woman tapped one and the heavy metal door slowly groaned shut, sealing them inside the cramped space.

Then suddenly the whole thing plunged straight down. At this point, Jack realized that they were inside some kind of elevator. There were lights blinking over the door, and the numbers on them were getting bigger and bigger. When the last and largest number lit up, the elevator finally came to a grinding halt and the heavy door slid open.

When Jack looked outside, it appeared to him that they were somewhere deep underground. Instead of sky there was a ceiling made of steel and concrete. Flickering orange lamps illuminated an endless field of garbage. There was also water flowing out of a large pipe into a long, deep canal.

Jack could not help asking in a rather bewildered voice. "What is this place?"

"The city dump. Or in other words, home sweet home." There was no trace of her usual sarcasm in her tone. It was a simple statement of fact.

She stepped out of the elevator and began to walk. Jack followed her along her path through the labyrinthine cavern of junk. Broken and discarded items were piled all around them, building up to towers in places. Finally they reached a clear space where a small hut stood. The walls were built of plywood, corrugated metal and plastic, and instead of a door there was a shabby curtain over the entrance.

Jack's bewildered expression returned. "You live here?"

The woman pulled her hood off. "Nobody ever comes to visit, so we won't have to worry about cops interrupting our dinner. Have a seat out here, I'll see if there's any food inside."

She disappeared through the curtain and into the hut before Jack could ask what he was supposed to sit on. Then he noticed some old tires lying around a pile of ashes, where a cooking fire had been. This spot must be both her kitchen and dining room. By the time the woman came out of her hut, Jack had seated himself on one of the tires. She placed a pile of crumpled newspapers and cardboard over the ashes and used a cigarette lighter to start a fire. Then she went back inside, came out with a Bunsen burner and placed it over the fire, then disappeared into the hut again. When she returned again she had a can of something in her hand and held a roll of duct tape in her teeth. After she put the can on top of the burner she took the roll of tape from her mouth and spoke.

"Hope you like beans."

She then sat down on her own tire, pulled her severed right arm out from inside her cloak, and proceeded to try taping it back into place.

Jack could not believe what he was seeing. As he watched her try to tape her severed arm back on, he felt his stomach sinking with guilt. Here was a person in truly dire straits, and he had almost abandoned her. That was something a true samurai would never, ever do.

Ashamed, he lowered his head and stared into the weak flames of the cooking fire. "I … I am sorry."

The woman looked up at him, still holding a piece of tape between her teeth. "Huh?"

"I have been no help to you at all." Jack said. "It is because of me that your arm is broken, and I could not find a mechanic for you."

She dropped the tape in her lap and frowned at him. "What are you talking about? You've been helping me all day! Those robo-cops would've taken me out if you hadn't come along, and you're going to all this trouble to find somebody who can fix me. That's more then anybody else has _ever_ done for me."

Silence fell again, and Jack took a moment to take a real look at the woman's face from across the cooking fire. In spite of the grime on her cheeks and the greasy uncombed bangs, she was really quite pretty. She seemed young, somewhere in her late teens or early twenties. He also noticed that what had looked like earrings earlier were actually screws in her earlobes.

Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but the color of her eyes seemed to match the steel blue shade of her metallic limbs. Her torso was still hidden underneath her patched-up cloak, but he could see that both her legs were made of the same metal as her arms. If not for her very human face and head, she could easily be mistaken for a robot.

Just when he began wondering how she had ended up living in a garbage dump with a body like this, the woman looked up at him again and asked him a question. "Say, who are you anyway?"

He blinked and realized that he had never introduced himself to her. "I am called Jack. And you?"

She shrugged. "I'm called a lot of things. Dumpster diver, homeless bum, walking trashcan, take your pick."

He frowned, thinking she was being sarcastic again. "I meant your name. What is your name?"

She stared into the flames for a long time before she answered. "I don't know."

Jack blinked. "You don't know your _name?_"

The woman shook her head, still staring at the fire. "Nope. I can't remember anything about myself before I woke up here in the dumps. It's like I didn't even exist before that day." She lifted her taped-on right arm and looked at it closely, as if it could give her the answers she wanted. "Having a name would be nice, though."

Now Jack felt less guilty with himself and more empathy for her. In a way, he could relate to her situation. Since his boyhood he had been burdened with the fate of the world. It was a lonely burden to bear, perhaps the loneliest in the world. But at least he knew who he was and where he came from, and many happy memories to look back on when life was hard. This woman had none of those things, and in that sense she was the most alone a human being could be.

Just then an idea came to him. It was a tiny thing, but it might still be of some help to her. "Perhaps _I_ could give you a name."

The woman looked at him, very confused. "What? Why would you wanna do that?"

"So you will have something to call yourself, until you can regain your memories." He rubbed his chin for a moment in thought. "How does 'Tetsuko' sound?"

"Tet…su…ko?" she repeated, unfamiliar with the foreign word. "What kind of name is that?"

"It is a name from my homeland." Jack explained. "It means 'strong as iron.'"

The woman looked at her hands, contemplating whether it was an appropriate name or not. Then she shrugged. "I guess it's better then nothing."

Soon the beans were warm enough to eat and the woman scooped them out of the can and into two chipped coffee mugs. Their flavor was weak and they were gone quickly, but Jack ate them anyway. After that the woman stamped the fire out with one metal foot, apparently immune to the heat, and entered the hut to sleep. Jack went inside with her, finding the interior of the shack to be just as shabby as the outside. The floor was covered in layers of cardboard, which they both lay on with ratty sheets for blankets.

Again the woman gave Jack a stern warning to keep to his side of the floor. It was very dark inside the hut, so much he could not see her when she removed her cloak, pulled a sheet over herself and went to sleep. After some tossing and turning, Jack eventually fell asleep as well.

He woke up the next morning to the sound of water splashing. Somehow it seemed lighter in the hut, and the woman was not on her side of the floor. As Jack sat up every muscle in his body cried out in pain from sleeping on nothing but cardboard and concrete. He tried to stand up to stretch but his head bumped the corrugated metal ceiling. Groaning from the new pain, he knelt to pick up his sandals and sword and fumbled his way through the curtain door and out of the hut.

The underground junk yard seemed brighter then it had last night. Jack looked up and noticed some skylights letting in some sun through the ceiling. He also noticed that the splashing noises were coming from behind the hut, along with the sound of the woman humming. Curious he peeked around the corner and saw her sitting on a large tire with a bucket full of water in front of her. She was dunking a rag into it, which she then rubbed with a bar of soap. When the rag was sufficiently soapy she rubbed it against herself to clean off the grime that built up on her metal limbs.

She was also not wearing her cloak. It was hanging up on a nail, and for the first time Jack could see that her torso was very much the torso of a normal human woman. She was wearing underwear that was old and dirty, but it wasn't enough to hide all her skin.

Embarrassed and flustered, Jack backed up and bumped into the wall of the hut. The noise gave him away and the woman sat straight up and glared at him. "Hey! What do you think you're doing, you pervert??"

Before Jack could say anything to defend himself, the soapy rag sailed through the air and went _splat_ on his face. He pulled it off and covered his eyes so not to make her even more angry. "I…I apologize! I did not know you were bathing!"

He heard her get up, walk over to him and snatch the rag from his hand. He feared she might hit him with something harder, but instead he heard fabric rustling. "Men…" she grumbled.

When Jack removed his hands from his eyes she was back in her old cloak with her body fully covered again. Her hair was damp from being washed and her face was clean, but her usual scowl was still there.

After glaring at him for a moment, she smirked. "At least now you can't deny that I'm a woman. So, what's the plan today?"

Jack was relieved that she had decided not to hit him and relaxed a bit. "We must continue our search for a mechanic. Your arm is back in place, but it is still broken, isn't it?"

She nodded and held out the damaged arm for him to see. Duct tape was the only thing holding the forearm in place and the hand flopped limply up and down as she shook it. "We should probably look for some food, too." she said. "Those beans were all I had left."

Jack felt somewhat guilty about eating her only food and decided to remedy that. "Then I shall buy our meal."

"What? Jack, you're already paying for my repairs! You don't have to--"

"Yes, I do. You fed me last night, and now I will feed you in return."

For a moment she was speechless. She definitely was not used to having someone do something nice for her. Then she pulled up her hood and muttered. "Fine, do what you want. I don't really care."

Just before she turned away, Jack thought he saw a hint of a smile on her lips. It was gone in a flash.

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter III

Chapter III

Back on the city's street level, Jack and Tetsuko were having breakfast in the only restaurant he considered suitable. It was a small noodle shop tucked away in a remote corner of the working-class district. Jack was instinctively drawn to it because the cuisine was comfortably familiar and there were hardly any people there to notice him. The business was family-owned, and although they were not natives of Earth they had lived on the planet long enough to master its cuisine.

For Jack, just being inside the small restaurant with its familiar smells and furnishings was a welcome relief from the overwhelming smoggy cityscape outside. However, Tetsuko was out of place right from the start. The homeless woman was more accustomed to eating from dumpsters behind restaurants than inside of them, and had no idea what she was supposed to do when sitting in a real chair at a real table. She fidgeted nervously across from Jack, hunched low and glancing all around from under her hood as if she expected someone to throw her out at any moment.

When a small alien waiter approached the table, Tetsuko instinctively reached for her cup, fully prepared to throw it at his head. To her surprise he politely offered her a menu and asked her what she would like to drink. Seeing her confusion, Jack told the waiter to bring water for both of them. As soon as the waiter left Tetsuko quickly hid her face behind the menu in an attempt to mask her embarrassment. Jack began to wonder if it had been a good idea to bring her here. Had he remembered how detached she was from polite society, he would certainly have offered to feed her some other way.

Suddenly Tetsuko interrupted his thoughts with a dramatic gasp of surprise. She had lowered the menu enough so that her face was visible again, revealing an expression of complete astonishment in her usual steely eyes. A moment later she had dropped the menu on the table and was pointing at it excitedly with her only good metal hand, as if she had just made an incredible discovery. "Six! They have _six_ different kinds of noodles! Did you see that? _Six!"_

Jack looked back at her. He looked at his own menu. Sure enough, there were six different varieties of noodle listed there, just like in every other noodle shop he had ever visited. Before he had time to say so, Tetsuko was talking excitedly again.

"Incredible! I always heard that you could get whatever food you wanted from a restaurant, but I never thought it was actually true!" She paused and lowered her menu, looking at Jack with some uncertainty in her eyes. "Uh, I _can_ order whatever I want, right?"

Jack smiled and nodded his head to reassure her. "Yes, I will pay for any food you wish to eat. And do not worry about the cost. I will take care of it."

Tetsuko went back to thoroughly studying the menu in silence, speaking only to ask Jack what certain foreign words like 'tofu' and 'soy' were. Seeing her happy made Jack feel much better. But as soon as the waiter returned to take their orders, she proceeded to list off one dish after another. "I'll have two yakisoba, a sukiyaki, three ramen … No, make that two ramen and three yakisoba … Wait, three sukiyaki … You know what? Just give me three of each."

The small alien waiter stared at her with very round, orange eyes. "Yes, ma'am." he said at last, quickly scribbling the order down on his notepad. "And for you, sir?"

It took a moment for Jack to reply. "Uh … green tea and shrimp ramen."

The waiter jotted down his order and smiled pleasantly at him. "Very good, sir. Your meals will be ready shortly. In the meantime, would you care for any appetizers?"

"Yes, we would!" Tetsuko said with great. "Bring us some steamed rice and the biggest plate of pot stickers you've got!"

"Right away, ma'am!" the waiter said cheerfully before disappearing into the kitchen. Jack could almost see all his funds vanishing with him.

Soon the waiter returned with their appetizers. No sooner did the dishes touch the table then Tetsuko began to make the food disappear. She made no attempt to use the chopsticks on the table. Instead she scooped her bowl up to her mouth and began noisily gulping the rice down as fast as humanly possible. Within seconds the bowl was completely empty and she had moved on to the pot stickers.

Jack let his own food grow cold in front of him as he watched the sight with a kind of disturbed fascination. Tetsuko was homeless and penniless, so it stood to reason that she had been hungry for a long time. In his mind he knew he should be glad that she was enjoying her food. But never in his life had Jack seen anyone, man or woman, devour anything with such ravenous gusto. The closest thing he could compare it to was watching a hyena tear the flesh from the bones of a fresh carcass.

This continued even when the main course arrived. As Tetsuko loudly slurped yakisoba noodles straight from the bowl, Jack began to notice he was not the only one staring at her. There were other customers in the restaurant with them, and all of them were looking at her with the same expressions of disgust. It was time for him to do something.

"Tetsuko." Jack said.

No response. More noisy slurping.

Jack cleared his throat and raised his voice a bit louder. "_Tetsuko._"

She paused and lowered her bowl, mouth full of half chewed vegetables and meat. Apparently she had forgotten the name she had accepted from him the night before, as it took a moment for her to realize that he was addressing her.

Tetsuko swallowed the food in her mouth in one gulp, plunked the bowl on the table and glared at Jack in annoyance. "What? Can't you see I'm eating here?"

Jack leaned over the table slightly and lowered his voice. "You are making a scene."

She looked around, noticing the numerous eyes on her for the first time. She looked back at him, licked broth from her lips and arched a cynical brow. "So?"

He suppressed an exasperated sigh. "It is dangerous. If you attract too much attention an enemy might discover us. Your body is damaged enough already, another fight could make it worse."

Tetsuko glanced briefly at her bionic right arm sitting limply in her lap. It had been nothing but dead weight for a good twenty-four hours. The clumsily applied tape did nothing to hide the ugly scorch marks and frayed wires. Perhaps Jack had a point. And naturally, she had to deny it.

"That damage was _your_fault, pal." she said, pointing one accusing metal finger from her functional left hand at him. "I could've taken those drones myself if _you_ hadn't shown up and made a mess of things."

Jack frowned. Tetsuko was remarkably good at getting on his nerves. None of the other women he had met ever argued with him like this. Actually, she reminded him more of his friend the Scotsman than a proper woman. They both threw insults around wherever they went and started fights as though they enjoyed it. Jack hated to think of what might happen if the two of them ever met.

Then he had an idea. His frown turned upward into a smirk. If treating Tetsuko like a woman would not work, maybe treating her like a man would. He sat back in his chair and spoke very calmly. "In that case, perhaps I should leave."

Tetsuko suddenly looked worried. "What?"

"I have places to go and things to do." Jack went on, calm as ever. "If you do not need my help, there is no reason for me to stay here and pay for all this food."

Tetsuko gaped back at him. He had struck her in the wallet, her weakest spot. With a low growl, she snatched up the chopsticks by her plate and began to eat with them. It was difficult for her to use them with her left hand, but it slowed her down enough to keep her quiet. The other customers, who had still been watching them, returned to their meals.

Relieved, Jack finally began to enjoy his shrimp ramen. As he ate, he began planning what to do afterward. They still had to find a proper mechanic, and there was no telling how long that would take. The repairs for Tetsuko's arm would be expensive, no doubt, but nothing his gold pieces couldn't pay for. Assuming he had any money left after the bill came, of course. They would have to do everything without being noticed by any police, bounty hunters or mercenaries that might be in the area. Then when they were finished he would have to leave Metro City as quickly as possible to resume his quest.

Leaving the city meant leaving Tetsuko behind. He felt an odd twinge of guilt at that thought. He had only met her a day ago and she was not the most pleasant company, but it did not seem right for him to just abandon the poor girl. She had no home or family, and would have to go on living in the underground junkyard, fend off police drones by herself, and survive on other people's scraps. On the other hand, he certainly could not take her with him on his quest. With bounty hunters and Aku's minions constantly chasing after him, it was simply too dangerous to have a travelling companion. Besides, he could not afford to get too attached to anyone in this time, because he would inevitably leave them behind once he found a way back to his own time.

A loud crash and a scream suddenly jolted him back to the present moment. Three teenage boys had broken down the front door of the restaurant. They all wore black masks that covered their faces except for their mouths and eyes. They were also carrying guns.

"Freeze!" one of the boys yelled. "This is a robbery!"

Another boy, the largest of the three, aimed his gun at the nearest waiter. "You. Get all the money out of the cash register. Now."

The third boy waved his gun to the rest of the room. "Everybody else, get under the tables and leave your valuables on top!"

All of the customers obeyed and crawled underneath the tables. All except for Jack. He remained seated bolt upright in his chair.

From the floor, Tetsuko tugged at the edge of his robe and hissed up at him. "Psst! Get down here, stupid!"

Jack did not reply. He stood up and placed one hand on the hilt of his sword. That was when the robbers noticed him.

The third robber pointed his gun at him. "Hey, you! I said get under the table!"

Tetsuko pulled on his robe again. "Do as he says, Jack! Don't make a scene! It's dangerous, remember?"

Jack continued to ignore her. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, staring the robber down as if daring him to fire.

He did. However, the bullet never reached its intended target. In the blink of an eye, Jack's blade had sprung from its sheath and sliced through the air, splitting the bullet neatly in half. It clattered onto the floor in two pieces.

The robber gaped in shock at this, as did his companions and everyone else in the room. Tetsuko smacked her forehead and groaned.

All three of the robbers opened fire on Jack, intending to turn him into a human piece of Swiss cheese. Jack charged across the floor at them, waving his sword so swiftly that it was only a shiny metallic blur in front of him. The noise of gunfire and clashing steel filled the room. More bullets fell to the ground in segments and the air reeked of gun smoke.

Once Jack was within striking distance, he sliced the barrel clean from the nearest robber's gun and struck him in the face with the blunt end of his sword hilt. He did the same to the next robber, knocking him into a shelf and breaking several dishes.

That left only one robber, the largest of them, still standing. However, he proved to be smarter and quicker than his partners. While Jack had been busy with them, he had grabbed one of the small alien waiters by the shirt and lifted him in the air as a living shield. And as if that weren't enough, he pressed the end of his gun against his hostage's temple. "Don't move, or I blow his brains out!"

Jack froze. The alien trembled. The robber grinned. "That's better. Now, put the sword down and get on the floor with everyone else."

There was a long, tense silence. Jack looked from the smug face of the masked robber, to the terrified face of the small alien, to the worried faces of the other waiters and customers hiding under the tables. His mind raced for a solution to this dilemma. Perhaps he should have listened to Tetsuko and taken his own advice, but it was too late now. There had to be some way to stop these villains and protect the innocents, some option besides surrender. The two fallen robbers began to stir and made pained groaning sounds. Jack's mind raced faster.

Suddenly a metal object sailed over his head and crashed into the center of large robber's face. He dropped both his hostage and his weapon, and fell to the ground with a heavy _thud_. Jack blinked at the sight in surprise. His eyes grew wider when he saw what the metal object was. It was a dismembered cyborg arm.

He turned around. Somehow during the confusion, Tetsuko had come out of her hiding place under the table and climbed on top of it. She stood there with her hood off and a triumphant grin on her face. The stump of her right arm was clearly visible under her cloak. "Bull's eye!" she cheered, thrusting her left fist in the air triumphantly.

The other two teenage robbers, now fully alert and sitting up, did not see Tetsuko. All they could see was Jack brandishing his sword over them and their unconscious leader sprawled out on the ground. It was their turn to start trembling now. "P-please, mister!" said one, backing away from Jack. "We were just kidding! We weren't really gonna hurt anyone, honest!"

Jack glared menacingly at the man and pointed his sword at him. "Leave this place, and never come back."

The robbers were happy to oblige. Grabbing their leader by the legs they dragged him out the same way they had come.

Once they were out of sight, Jack slid his sword back into its sheath. Almost immediately he was surrounded by the grateful alien waiters who were all trying to express their gratitude at once. "Thank you, kind sir! You have saved our lives! We are in your debt!"

"Please, there is no need to thank me." Jack said humbly. "Besides, I am not the only one responsible for saving you."

He turned to Tetsuko, who was scooping up her dismembered metal arm from the floor and trying to tape it back into place again. He had not expected her to be of any help in the fight, but she had surprised him once again. As the waiters swarmed around her and began praising her for her bravery, her previous boldness suddenly vanished and she became flustered and embarrassed. Clearly she was not used to this sort of attention. "Oh, uh, it was nothing." she said, blushing slightly.

"Please, brave heroes," one of the waiters said. "Let us repay you for your courage. Is there anything at all we might do to show our thanks?"

Jack was about to politely decline, but changed his mind when he saw Tetsuko clutching her broken arm to her chest. "Now that you mention it," he said. "We have been searching since yesterday for a mechanic to help my friend. Do you know of someone who could help us?"

The small aliens huddled together, murmuring to each other in their native tongue. Tetsuko inched her way over to Jack's side, pulling her hood back on as if to hide from her new admirers.

Soon the alien murmuring stopped and they turned their attention back to the humans. One of them spoke. "We know of a very fine mechanic who works here in this city."

Another waiter chimed in. "He is a master of his craft, and cyborgs are his specialty. You will not be disappointed with his work."

Jack's spirits rose at this glimmer of hope. "Where can we find him?"

The aliens muttered in their own tongue a bit before answering. "His workshop is far from here. We will provide a map to show you the way."

A few of the aliens scurried to the counter, where they fished out a blank piece paper and a pen. After a few minutes of more strange gibberish, they returned with a small hand drawn map. "Here you are, sir." said one, giving it to Jack. "Good luck, and thank you once again."

Jack politely accepted the map and paid the aliens for breakfast, even though they insisted on giving it to him on the house. Tetsuko followed him out of the restaurant, still trying to hide her face under her hood.

"Boy, that was lucky." she remarked as she came up beside him. "So now all we have to do is find this mechanic they were talking about."

"Here, you read the map." Jack said, giving the piece of paper to her. "You are more familiar with this city than I am."

Tetsuko took the map in her left hand and studied it for a moment. "Hmm. Looks like the shop is near the other edge of town. That's a really long walk from here. Looks like we'll have to ride the bullet train again."

Jack stiffened. He remembered riding that horrible, screeching, overcrowded, mode of high-speed public transportation all too well. "Are you _certain_ there is no other way to get there?" he asked.

Tetsuko nodded her hooded head.

Jack groaned. "Very well. The bullet train it is."

_To be continued …_


	4. Chapter IV

Chapter IV

One bullet train ride later, Jack and Tetsuko found themselves on the opposite side of the city. After some walking, Jack worried that perhaps they had taken a wrong turn somewhere. He had asked Tetsuko about it, but she was sure that they were following the map the aliens had given them correctly. Jack had no other choice than to follow her lead and glance around to make sure there was nobody following them. This neighborhood made him very uneasy. Here the buildings were smaller and much older. Many of them were in ruins or boarded up, and there were no cars or people in the streets

They finally stopped in front of what appeared to be an abandoned apartment building. Jack studied the aging structure with a critical eye. The walls were covered with peeling paint and the dirty windows were barred and locked from the inside. There was an electric sign above the door, but the lights were burned out and the letters were in a language Jack did not recognize. If anyone had ever lived here, it looked as though they had moved out a long time ago.

He turned to Tetsuko, who was standing beside him on the sidewalk. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

Tetsuko looked at the piece of paper in her hand with some confusion. "I think so. It's the right address, anyway. Let's see if anyone's home."

She climbed the steps that led to the front door. There was a small speaker box in the doorway with all the buttons removed except for one. When she pressed it a crackling buzz came out. She waited a moment for a response, but none came. Again she pressed the button, holding it down a bit longer. Again there was no response. Growing irritated, she pressed the button repeatedly in a series of short and annoying buzzes.

Soon she was interrupted by a very deep, hoarse voice yelling through the speaker. "Go away! I'm not home! This is a recording!"

Tetsuko was about to yell back a few angry words of her own, but Jack stopped her just in time. "Excuse me, sir, but are you a mechanic?"

The speaker box gave a disdainful grunt in reply. "Humph. Who wants to know?"

"Please, sir," Jack went on in the most polite manner he could. "My companion is a cyborg, and her arm is in grave need of repair. All of the other mechanics we have seen have turned us away. You are our last hope."

"Humph. I don't do business with strangers." the deep voice replied.

Jack was not ready to give up so easily. "We are not strangers. We were sent here by waiters from a noodle shop on the other side of the city. They told us you were a master of your craft."

The speaker box was quiet for a moment. Then it gave another grunt. "Humph. Fine. I'm unlocking the door now. Take the stairs to the seventh floor. I'll meet you there."

The large iron door gave a noisy creak and groaned in pain as it dragged itself slowly open. Jack and Tetsuko stepped into a drab, dimly lit lobby and walked towards a flight of stairs. Behind them the door slowly and painfully dragged itself shut, and the metallic echo rang for several seconds before fading back to silence.

Except for the wooden clacking of Jack's sandals and the steely clanking of Tetsuko's feet against the stairs, there was no other sound anywhere in the building. When they reached the seventh floor there was only one door open at the end of the long, empty corridor. A single bright light cast a huge black shadow on the opposite wall, the silhouette of a very big man. Jack and Tetsuko approached the open door cautiously. When they got there they both stopped and stared at the person there.

Standing in the doorway, with a bright light shining behind him, was a little man barely more than six inches high. He had a large round face and a pair of little horns growing out of his head. His face was a wrinkled, vinegary brown and his strawberry nose looked like the moon through a telescope. His head, with its stubby horns, was bald as an egg. He wore a faded set of red coveralls and dingy black boots.

Jack immediately recognized what the small creature was. He had never actually seen one before, but he had heard tales and descriptions of them during his travels, mainly from people who used flying machines. Before he could stop himself, words were coming out of his mouth. "You … you are a _gremlin!_"

The little man's face took on the expression of someone who had heard that reaction too many times before. "The name's Gus." He had the same deep, hoarse voice from the speaker box, which did not fit with his tiny body at all. "And yes, I'm a gremlin. You got a problem with that?"

Jack stammered, trying to find the least offensive way to put his thoughts into words. "I-I do not understand. I have always heard that gremlins were best at _damaging_ machines, not repairing them."

"Only idiots believe everything they hear." Gus retorted. "I've made an honest living for over fifty years fixing other peoples broken stuff, an' if you want me do it for you you'd better watch your mouth!"

Feeling very embarrassed, Jack knelt down and bowed his head to the gremlin's eye level in apology. "Please forgive my rudeness, sir. I did not mean to offend you. I only hope you will still consider assisting my companion with her repairs."

The gremlin regarded him sternly before giving another grunt. He then turned his attention to Tetsuko, who had bent down to get a closer look at the odd little creature. Unlike Jack, she was openly gawking at Gus and did not seem to realize this might be rude. The gremlin looked back at her the way a professional art critic might study a very amateurish painting. "Humph. Come in here so I can take a better look."

Gus turned around and walked into the brightly lit apartment. The two humans followed him very carefully, not wanting to step on him by accident. Both of them were feeling rather bewildered as they took in their new surroundings. The walls were decorated with images of various different kinds of flying machines and portraits of other gremlins. There were some normal-sized furnishings, but most everything else was scaled down several times, and many of these small furnishings were mounted on shelves about three feet above the floor. It was like stepping into a very disorganized dollhouse.

There was a low coffee table with no chairs in the center of the room. When they neared the table they saw a miniature stepladder leading up to it and certain gremlin-sized items on the surface. As the two humans knelt on the floor, Gus climbed a stepladder and walked to the middle of the tabletop as if it were a stage. "Okay, miss, what seems to be the problem?"

"This." Tetsuko placed her severed right arm on the table in front of him.

Gus walked right up to the damaged end of the limb and eyed it closely. He pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, put them on, and began handling the broken bits of wire and circuitry. "Humph. This is a fine mess right here." he muttered aloud. "Leaky oil an' exposed electrical systems, fire hazard just waitin' to happen. Nasty scorch marks, maybe from a laser. An' what's this stuff? Duct tape? Humph."

He clicked his tongue and shook his head from side to side. Finally he looked up at his customer. "This is a highly sophisticated piece of technology you got here, miss, the most advanced I seen in years. How long you had these parts for an' where'd you get 'em?"

The question caught Tetsuko off guard. She looked down at her lap, dark bangs concealing her eyes. Gus waited for her to answer him but she remained mute. Kneeling at the other end of the table, Jack cleared his throat to get the gremlin's attention. "Er, Gus … Tetsuko has lost much of her memory. She cannot remember how she came to have these parts."

The gremlin arched his wrinkled brows. "Amnesia, huh? Humph. That's pretty typical for a lotta cyborgs. Well, it doesn't make much difference. I can still fix it anyway."

Tetsuko's head snapped up again. "You can?"

"Sure, no sweat." Gus said, tucking his thumbs into his pockets and proudly raising himself up to his full six-and-a-half inches of height. "But if you ask me, it ain't just your arm that needs lookin' at. When's the last time you got any basic maintenance done?"

She blinked in confusion. "Maintenance?"

"Yeah, you know. Oiling your joints, polishing, weather-proofing, that kinda stuff."

Again she went mute and stared down at her lap. She fidgeted nervously with the edges of her tattered cloak with her only good hand.

"Humph. Thought so." Gus pulled a tiny digital tablet from his pocket and began writing on it with a stylus no bigger than a pin. "Arm repairs, plus basic maintenance, we're lookin' at about … five, maybe six hours of working time."

Tetsuko balked at this. "Six _hours?!"_

Gus arched his wrinkled brows at her. "What? You think fixin' bionic prosthetics is like puttin' on a Band-Aid? This kinda meticulous operation takes a lotta time an' hard work, not to mention money." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Let's see now… I'd say somewhere within ten thousand credits, if you're lucky."

"Hold on a second." she said. "What exactly are gonna _do_ to me?"

"It's pretty simple." Gus said. "First I'm gonna have to run a full body scan on you to see how much wiring is attached to your nerves. Then I'll open up your forearm here and get rid of all these busted electrical systems. Next, I'll disconnect your upper arm from your shoulder so I can install new biosensors to your nerves and muscles, and then hook those up to new wires. I might need to give you new controllers and actuators, too. When that's done I can put all the metal back on and reconnect your arm, and move on to the basic maintenance service. Or we could do the maintenance service first and deal with your arm later, it's up to you."

Jack did not find the tiny mechanic's explanation simple at all. Besides the part about money, he understood very little of what Gus was talking about. For all his time spent in the world of the future, his knowledge of its technological advancements was still very limited. However, Tetsuko seemed to grasp it and all the signs that something was wrong were going off. Her mouth was set firmly in a deep scowl and her steely glare was back. After Gus had finished speaking there was a prolonged and weighty silence at the table. Tetsuko's hard expression remained the same. Then, without a word, she got up from the floor, picked up her broken arm, and started walking toward the door.

Jack and Gus both stared confusedly at her retreating back. "Hey! Where do you think you're goin'?" Gus yelled after her.

"Er, perhaps I should speak with her." Jack said to the tiny mechanic. He stood and caught up to Tetsuko just as she was going out the door and into the hall, but she quickened her pace when she heard him. "Tetsuko, wait! What are you doing? Gus has not repaired your arm yet."

The woman stopped halfway down the hall, her back still turned to him. "No."

He became even more confused. Here at last there was a mechanic who could finally help her, and suddenly she did not want it? Something was definitely wrong. "Tetsuko…"

She whirled around to face him, her steely eyes flashing in the dim corridor. "No! There is no way in this or any other world that I'm gonna let that little quack take me apart!"

Jack studied her angry face. She looked very much like she was truly upset, but there was something else there. Her voice had a slight tremor in it, and her eyes were open wider than they should have been. "You are afraid."

Her voice rose up in volume several notches and she began waving her good arm in a wild frenzy as she spoke. "Of course I'm afraid, stupid! Didn't you hear the way he was talking about me? This is my _body_ he wants to mess with! And he's a _gremlin_, Jack! You said yourself, those guys _break_ machines!"

Jack looked back at her with absolute calm and seriousness. She was overreacting, and the only way to calm her down was for him to remain calm. "I do not think Gus is like that." His tone was much quieter than hers. "We would not have been sent to him if he were untrustworthy."

She became defensive and jabbed her finger at his chest accusingly. "Why are you taking his side? He could be swindling you! A complete overhaul is gonna cost you a fortune!"

Jack's serious expression did not change. "I am well aware of that. But I believe it will be worth the price."

"How could it _possibly_ be worth it to _you?_ _You're_ not getting anything from this! Why _are_ you doing all this, anyway? You've wasted all this time trying to help me, and you don't even _know_ me!"

She paused, as if she had just hit upon some revelation. The volume of her voice went down several notches, but the emotion in it was still burning hot, if not hotter. "That's it, isn't it? You feel _sorry_ for me. Well, guess what, pal? I don't want your _pity_. I never asked for you to save me from the cops, or fix my arm, or feed me, or anything! So go find yourself some other charity case, 'cause I'm out of here!"

She stormed away and stomped toward the staircase, but before her foot could touch the first stair, a strong hand suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her back around. Jack's face was less than a foot away from hers, and the look in his eyes had gone from serious to intimidating. She became acutely aware that he was a full head taller than her, and the way he was looking at her made her feel even smaller.

"Tetsuko." The name almost seemed to weigh as much as the iron in its meaning from the way he said it. "Listen to me."

Her mouth would not open even if she tried to speak. This was a side of Jack she had not seen before and had not known existed. It felt like he was looking straight into her soul. Her shoulders were made of steel and she had no sense of touch in them, but his grip on them remained firm.

"You and I are not so different." Jack said. "I am alone as well. I have no home or family in this world, and each day I must fight for survival." He seemed to actually grow calmer as he spoke, and his expression became more sad than angry. "It is a difficult and dangerous life, one I would never wish upon another human being. _That_ is why I want to help you."

It was Tetsuko's turn to feel guilty now. She averted his gaze by looking down at the floor, one clenched fist trembling at her side. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, and several seconds of silence passed as she tried to pick out what words to say. "Jack, I … I can't do this. I … I don't know what'll happen."

Jack loosened his grip on her shoulders. His tone became more reassuring as he attempted to reason with her. "Try to think of it this way. If Gus examines you, he may uncover some evidence as to who made you this way and why. He could find out truths about your life that you have forgotten."

Surprised, she looked up at his face. His expression was still very calm and serious, but there was much more compassion in it. Somehow it did not make her feel quite as small as before and her resolve began to weaken. More than anything she wanted to know the truth about herself, and she had thought she would take any chance to find it. Now here was a chance, but she was too afraid of what could go wrong to seize it. The image of a strange, possibly wicked little creature touching her body in certain places made her very uneasy. Her gaze fell back on the small space of floor between them and remained fixed there.

Jack sensed her uncertainty. "Do not be afraid, Tetsuko. I will not leave you."

Tetsuko looked back at him with wide, anxious eyes. She placed her small, steel hand on top of his and gripped it tightly. "Jack … you promise you'll stay?"

Jack smiled warmly and nodded. "I promise. I will stay for as long as you need me, and I will not let you come to harm."

Tetsuko looked back at him very seriously to make sure that he was telling the truth. She looked down at the floor again and heaved a heavy sigh, then looked up again with determined, brave face. "Okay, then. Let's do this thing."

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter V

Chapter V

When they returned to Gus's workshop, he was seated in a little armchair and drinking a little cup of coffee. He did not seem surprised to see them back again and merely asked which service Tetsuko wanted performed first. She decided she would prefer to have the basic maintenance done before the arm repairs, to which Gus replied with his now trademark "Humph."

For the full body scan, Tetsuko was required to remove her cloak and stand inside of a large, clear, cylindrical stall about the same size as a phone booth. She had to remain motionless with her arms held out from her sides as blue rings of light moved around her. This created a large, three-dimensional X-ray image of her cyborg body, which appeared on the holo-screen of Gus's computer. From this image he learned and revealed that only Tetsuko's arms and legs were machines. Her head, torso, and all of their contents were entirely human.

After the scan, it was time for the basic maintenance service. Tetsuko had to put on protective goggles and a breathing mask, which was not easy to do with only one hand. Then she stepped into another room and sat down in a large and uncomfortable chair. There were robot arms lining the walls and one large window in front of her. On the other side of this window, Gus took a seat behind a computer console and spoke to her through an intercom to let her know what was about to happen. Then he began sending various commands to the robot arms. Each arm was equipped with a different tool for the job. One bore a polishing brush, another bore an electric screwdriver, another administered a rust proofing spray.

Tetsuko found all of this very humiliating and physically uncomfortable. However, she did not complain once because Jack was always within sight. Seeing him hover over the little gremlin mechanic made her feel both more and less nervous. Yes, it was embarrassing for her to have him watching her while Gus's machines did their work, but it was comforting to know that if anything went wrong she could count on Jack to come to her aid.

Once the maintenance service was done, the robot arms prepared to detach the upper half of Tetsuko's broken right arm from her shoulder. Gus warned her beforehand that this part would be extremely painful, and it was. As soon as the wires were detached from her nerves, the entire right side of her upper body was on fire. However, she did not scream. Instead she bit down on her lower lip hard enough to taste blood.

A large bandage was then applied to Tetsuko's empty right shoulder socket to protect the open wound. Gus took both parts of the arm to yet another room and locked himself inside, saying he was not to be disturbed while he was performing this most delicate of operations. In the meantime, Tetsuko was welcome to rest on a cot.

However, the now one-armed cyborg felt dizzy on standing from her chair, too dizzy to walk to the room where the cot was. This was when Jack's assistance was needed. Pulling her left arm around his shoulders and wrapping his right arm securely around her waist, he helped Tetsuko stumble down the narrow hallway and into the room with the cot.

Once she was lying down he started to leave to let her rest, but her weary voice stopped him. "Hey …"

Jack looked back at her, dark brows furrowed with concern. Her eyelids were drooping and her breath was labored.

"You promised you'd stay…"

There was only one other piece of furniture in the room, a simple wooden chair in a corner. Jack sat down on it. Tetsuko did not say anything after that.

By the time she was waking up, Gus had finished repairing her right arm and was ready to reinstall it. This time Tetsuko was able to stand up and walk on her own, but again the gremlin warned her that the installation would be extremely painful. Again she bit her lower lip to fight through it, again she had to lie down on the cot afterward, and again she wanted Jack to stay in the room with her.

As she slept, Jack watched her face. She looked completely exhausted, and he could not blame her. Everything that she had gone through up to now looked incredibly stressful. Her face was red and sweaty, and her bangs were sticking to her forehead, yet she still managed to look attractive somehow. Her figure was undeniably female without her loose-fitting cloak to cover it, and her newly cleaned limbs had a smooth shine to them. She almost looked beautiful.

Wait. Why was he thinking like this? What was happening? Could it be that, against his better judgment, he was developing feelings for Tetsuko? No, that was totally impossible. She was not his type, not by a long shot. He was usually attracted to more courteous, refined women, or at least those who pretended to be so. Tetsuko was not like that at all. She was impolite, obstinate, cynical, bad-tempered, and never attempted to pretend she was anything other than that.

And yet, he could hardly imagine anyone, man or woman, who might be able to endure the ordeal she was currently going through. Most people would have been reduced to a weeping, sobbing mess after having a limb torn off. He shuddered to think of how he might respond in such a position. If he had known how excruciating the procedure would be, he would have thought twice before putting her through it.

Jack frowned, silently rebuking himself. The more he tried to deny it, the more he realized he was growing too attached to Tetsuko. What a fool he was to think he could resist a female's charms, even one as charmless as this one. He made up his mind then and there that he would leave this city far behind him the next morning. He could not afford to risk another day alone with Tetsuko. The longer he stayed the harder it would be to leave.

He spent the rest of his time meditating, trying to clear his mind of all thought and forget about the sleeping cyborg woman on the cot beside him. A deep, hoarse coughing sound from the doorway brought him back to reality. It was Gus, riding in a tiny hovercraft about three feet above the ground. The look on his round, wrinkled face was grim. "Hey, mister. I got somethin' to show ya."

Jack frowned again, sensing bad news. He looked to make sure Tetsuko was still asleep before he followed the gremlin out into the hallway back to the first room, where the scanning machine was. Gus brought his little hovercraft up to his little computer console and began typing on the little keyboard. Soon the X-ray images from Tetsuko's body scan appeared on the holo-screen.

"Humph. There's somethin' real fishy about your lady friend's parts, mister." Gus said. "They're way too advanced to be from any secondhand cyborg shop. Parts like that cost money, lots more than most people have. And that's not all. Here, take a look at this."

He selected one of the images, a close-up of Tetsuko's right forearm. Jack squinted at the image, looking for anything out of the ordinary. It took a moment for him to notice it, but the longer he looked the clearer it became. Built into the forearm was a long, flat, and pointed triangular form stretching from the wrist to the elbow. Jack's eyes widened with surprise. "That is a _blade!"_

Gus nodded his bald, horned head. "It's an automatic switchblade, to be exact." He selected three close-up images of Tetsuko's other limbs. "She's got another one just like it in her left arm, and a matching pair in both her legs. Did she say anythin' about these before?"

Jack shook his head. He frowned at the images some more, rubbing his chin broodingly. "Did you find anything else unusual?"

Gus shook his head. "No, and that's what's _really_ unusual. She doesn't have any kind of identifyin' marks on her, not even a serial number. Whoever made her like this didn't wanna be found out."

Jack pondered all this new information carefully. From what Gus had told him, the maker of Tetsuko's parts had to be someone wealthy, sinister, and dishonest. But if that were the case, why would he go to all the trouble of making her this way only to abandon her in the city junkyard with no memory? None of it seemed to add up, and Tetsuko was not likely to remember anything about it. Nonetheless, she deserved to know the truth.

He straightened himself. "I must give her this information when she awakens."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Gus said.

Jack looked back at him, confused.

"It might be a bad idea." the gremlin went on. "The only times I've seen unlabeled cyborg parts with secret weapons installed in 'em is in professional assassins. If you tell her you know about this, and the amnesia story's just a hoax, you could be in big trouble."

Jack frowned even more at this. "I do not believe that."

Gus returned his stern expression with just as much seriousness, if not more. "Listen, mister. I know who you really are. I know what you're tryin' to do, and that's the only reason I agreed to help you and your lady friend out. I'm no fan of Aku, it's 'cause of him that I have to live like a hermit and work in secret. If the lady's amnesia story really is true, then you might be safe with her. But if you're smart, you'll get the heck _away_ from her and _out_ of this city as soon as you can. There's no tellin' what she might be capable of."

Jack tightened his fists. He had to admit, Gus's theory could be true. It would not be the first time a woman had deceived him in order to destroy him in service to Aku. But he simply could not see Tetsuko doing the same thing. None of what he knew of her and what Gus had said seemed to connect. Still, the gremlin had a valid point. It would be wise for him to stick to his plan and leave the city as soon as possible.

By the time Tetsuko was awake again, evening had come. She seemed to be feeling much better now, but before she could leave Gus wanted to make sure her newly repaired right arm was working properly. Jack watched as Tetsuko moved her formerly dead hand and fingers, flexed them, straightened them, took hold of a rubber ball and squeezed it. The more she used her repaired arm, the happier she became.

The last test was one of dexterity. Gus provided her with a piece of paper and a pencil, and instructed her to write on it.

"What should I write?" she asked.

The gremlin shrugged his small shoulders. "Humph. It's up to you."

She lifted the pencil and held it between her fingers with no trouble. For a moment she just looked at the blank piece of paper and tapped the pencil on the tabletop. Then she looked at Jack, who was by her side again. "Hey, Jack. How do you spell 'Tetsuko'?"

He blinked at her in surprise before he answered her question. It was unlikely she would know how to write the name in his native language, so he spelled it for her in the modern alphabet. "T-E-T-S-U-K-O."

She concentrated hard as she slowly wrote each letter, one by one, in large capitals, sounding them out to herself under her breath. "T … E … T … S … U … K … O …" Finished, she held it up for him to see. "Did I get it right?"

Jack looked at her writing. It was wobbly and clumsy, like the work of a schoolchild, but it was legible and clear. "Yes, that is correct."

Beaming with pride, she read the name aloud. "Tetsuko." She put the pencil down and folded the piece of paper up into a square. "Good. I'm gonna keep this, so I don't forget it."

She then got up to get her cloak. While she was doing this, Jack turned to Gus in his hovercraft to discuss the subject of payment. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothin'." Gus said. Before Jack could argue, the gremlin raised his hand to cut him off. "I mean it. I'm not takin' a cent from you."

Jack put his hands together and bowed deeply in gratitude. "Thank you, sir, for all you have done."

"Humph. Don't mention it. Now get going before I change my mind."

By the time they left Gus, night was falling in the city. As they walked the streets bright lamps and neon signs lit the way, and they could hear the sound of night clubs coming alive. Hover-cars sped by with their headlights on and stereos thumping. Along with these sounds, Tetsuko was humming. Jack recognized the tune as the same one from that morning, when he had accidentally spotted her washing herself with water from an old bucket behind her shack in the junkyard. She was also bending and flexing her right arm and twisting it around in the same way a young child might play with a new toy.

Jack smiled, feeling a pleasant sense of fulfillment. He had kept his promise to her, and she would be better off now because of it. Even if Gus was right about her, even if she was not what she seemed, he still felt glad that he had been able to help her somehow. And yet Jack still felt a twinge of guilt. He still had not told her any of the information Gus had given him in secret. His thoughts were torn between his feelings of friendship toward the girl and his growing concern that she might be an enemy.

Neither of them had spoken much since leaving the mechanic. Jack decided now might be a good time to talk. "How do you feel, Tetsuko?"

From under her hood, she grinned up at him. "I've never felt better in my life! I feel like I could take on a hundred of Aku's drones by myself!" Her grin became a playful smirk. "Heck, I bet I could even take _you_ on! Wanna arm wrestle?"

Jack chuckled a bit nervously. Although she was clearly joking, the last thing he wanted was to start some kind of confrontation that might end badly. He decided to change the subject. "Good. I am glad you are well again, because I must leave the city tomorrow."

Tetsuko's smile vanished suddenly. "Tomorrow?"

He felt his guilt sinking down into his stomach. He tried to reply anyway. "Well … I have fulfilled my promise to have your arm repaired. You no longer need me to stay with you …"

She turned her hooded head forward again and continued to walk. Jack worried that he might have hurt her feelings. He began trying to think of something else to say that might make her feel better, but could not think of anything.

Eventually it was Tetsuko who broke the silence. "I think we're lost."

Jack became more worried. "What?"

She took their map out from her cloak and moved under a street light to see it better. "This doesn't look like the way we came. See that bar across the street? We didn't pass any bars before."

Jack looked at the bar. She was right. He had not seen it when they were looking for Gus's shop earlier that day. In fact, all of their surroundings looked unfamiliar. The buildings here were less small and old than the ones in the mechanic's neighborhood, and the entire area was much livelier.

Tetsuko groaned. "Ugh, I don't believe this. We must've made a wrong turn somewhere. Now I can't tell _where_ we are."

"Perhaps we could retrace our steps back to where Gus lives?" Jack suggested.

She shook her head. "No, that would take too long. This is when all the creeps come out. We could get mugged before we ever got there."

Jack looked at the map in her hands, then back at the bar. "It seems we must ask someone here for directions."

She looked back at him as if he had lost his mind. "Are you kidding? Look at these people! You really think they're gonna help us?"

She had a point. Not one of the passersby around them looked like people Jack would want to associate with. Aliens, robots and humans of all shapes, sizes and colors were everywhere, sporting radical hairstyles, clothing, tattoos and body piercings. Some even had clearly visible weapons. Most of this lot was loitering around the bar, and they all appeared to be either drunk or planning to become drunk.

Without consulting Tetsuko, Jack made his way across the street and toward the bar. Not wanting to be left on the sidewalk by herself, she followed him. "Men." she grumbled. "They'll be the death of me someday."

_To be continued …_


	6. Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Jack found the inside of the bar to be far less pleasant than the outside. It was filled with just as many seedy looking characters as there were out on the street, and there was a good chance that at least one of them could be a bounty hunter. But bars were good places to get information if one could find the right person to talk to. That person was nearly always the bartender. The bartender of this particular bar was an overweight purple alien with four yellow eyes. He was rubbing the counter with a cloth, but he seemed to be doing it more out of boredom than actually wanting to clean anything. Jack bravely approached him through clouds of tobacco smoke.

Meanwhile Tetsuko followed him with much less confidence. During the day Metro City was a relatively harmless place, but at night it transformed into a jungle. The homeless woman preferred to take shelter in her junkyard shack and not to go out in the streets then, unless she was especially desperate for food. In such cases she was careful to avoid any and all drinking establishments, since the men who went there were often predatory toward females. Usually she could fend off one or two creeps, but here there were dozens of them. The ragtag occupants of one table kept looking in her direction, and one of them, a particularly ugly bat-like creature, grinned and leered at her. With a disgusted shudder, Tetsuko turned back toward the counter and focused her attention on Jack to calm herself down. She had already seen how skilled he was in battle, and he had promised her personally to keep her from harm. As long as she stuck with him, none of these weirdoes could hurt her.

Seeing possible customers approaching, the bartender stopped rubbing the counter and gave them a rather smarmy smile. "Welcome, guests." he said in a very thick, almost Russian accent. "What can I doing for you?"

Jack rested one arm on the counter and kept his voice low. "We are looking for the nearest bullet train station. Perhaps you could tell us how to find it."

The bartender arched a brow above one pair of eyes. "Train station, eh? Is very far away, that place. How you two come here, trying to go there?"

Jack turned to Tetsuko to ask her for the map, but she was facing the other way and gripping her hood tightly with both hands. She would not be able to hear him over the noise of the customers, so he tapped her shoulder.

"_Gah!"_ she yelped and all but shrank away from him. When she realized it was Jack who had touched her and not one of the drunken weirdoes, her mood changed from panic to annoyance. "Don't _scare_ me like that!"

He gestured for her to lower her voice and leaned in close enough to whisper. "I apologize, but I must borrow the map from you. May I see it, please?"

Still looking annoyed, she fished around inside her cloak until she found the piece of paper. As she passed it to him, she lowered her voice to a very tense whisper. "Jack, I hate this place. Let's get directions somewhere else."

"There is nowhere else to go here." Jack replied. "Besides, we have had nothing to eat since this morning. You especially need food to restore your strength."

Tetsuko frowned and was about to make a snappy comeback when the noisy gurgling of her stomach betrayed her. As her face reddened with embarrassment, Jack simply smiled smugly. Frustrated, she clanked one steel hand against the counter and spoke to the alien behind it. "Hey, bartender, do you sell anything here besides booze?"

His smarmy smile returned. "Most certainly, young miss. We carry wide assortment of soft drinks, and serve most delicious pickled eggs and jellied eels in whole town."

To Jack pickled eggs and jellied eels sounded repulsive, but Tetsuko was not so finicky. "Sure, yeah, sounds great."

The bartender changed the direction of his smile to Jack. "Anything for you, sir?"

Jack was about to ask if any kind of tea was served here when he heard heavy footsteps coming up from behind. A clawed finger tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see a tall, bulky alien that looked very much like an alligator. "Hey, mister." he said in a very gravelly voice. "My buddies an' me were just wonderin'. Is this you?"

He held up a digital tablet. It was a wanted poster bearing Jack's face. Tetsuko stared at the image with wide, confused eyes. Jack set his mouth into a firm, straight line and replied only with a fierce look.

"Says here you're a wanted man." the alligator man went on. "And Aku's got a huge reward for the bounty hunter that catches you. Why don't you come along with us so we can straighten it all out?"

The alligator man's friends began to surround them. Tetsuko recognized one of them as the ugly bat-like creature who had been leering at her. Jack's dark eyes narrowed as he surveyed the whole nasty bunch. "I do not think so." he said.

"Oh, I think you will." The alligator man gave a very wide, sharp-toothed grin as he pulled a giant laser gun from his side. Jack was about to draw his sword, but to his surprise, the gun was aimed not at him, but at Tetsuko.

His entire body went rigid. Eyes smoldering, he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, but he made no move to attack. He already hated to see anyone in danger, but the sight of Tetsuko facing the barrel of a gun made him almost angrier than he could stand. The alligator man saw that his prey was becoming unsettled and decided to goad him further. "So what's it gonna be? It's up to you whether your little girlfriend lives or not, samurai."

Tetsuko stiffened abruptly and her already wide eyes grew even wider. Normally she would have been uncomfortable with being referred to as a 'little girlfriend', but those were not the words that were troubling her now. The last word the hunter had said was echoing in her mind. _Samurai_ …Where had she heard that word before?

Jack glared defiantly up at the tall alligator man. He was just barely able to keep his temper in check in order to speak. "Leave the woman alone. She has nothing to do with me."

"In that case, you won't care if she dies." The alligator man's toothy grin widened as he started to pull the trigger.

Even as she was staring down the barrel of the giant gun, Tetsuko could not concentrate on what was going on. The word continued to echo in her mind. _Samurai … Samurai … _

Suddenly a huge scream shocked her back into the present. The alligator man's huge gun and severed forearm dropped heavily to the floor. Jack stood over him with his sword drawn and stared fiercely at the other bounty hunters. Confused and nervous, they looked from him to their wounded comrade, trying to decide what to do next. Tetsuko felt much the same until she heard Jack's voice speaking to her in very urgent tone. "Take cover, now!"

Seconds later the hunters had produced laser weapons of their own and began firing. Pandemonium ensued as Jack ducked and rolled out of the way, kicked over an empty table and used it for a shield. Tetsuko managed to disappear behind the counter, where the frightened alien bartender was also hiding. He was covering his head with his thick arms as laser blasts whizzed over his head. "This … This is madness!" he said aloud. "I must call police!"

Tetsuko thought quickly. If Jack was an outlaw with a price on his head, the police would certainly try to arrest him. She knew perfectly well that Aku's robo-cops were no match for him, but she was not about to take any chances. As the bartender began reaching for a telephone hidden under the counter, she whacked his hand away from it with all her cyborg strength. "Don't be stupid!" she snapped at him. "They'll just make things worse!" Confused, the bartender recoiled from her and rubbed his sore hand. How could such a little human hit so hard?

Jack waited for the lasers to stop firing before he leapt from behind the fallen table, grabbed a stool and flung it at the group of hunters. It knocked them all to the floor, but the hunters were only disoriented momentarily and were soon shooting at him again. Even then, he was still fast enough to dodge their blasts and get close enough to slice another hunter's arm off.

From behind the counter, Tetsuko had peeked up just enough to watch what was going on. She had already seen Jack in battle twice before, but this time it was different. He was not protecting anyone else or sparing enemies here. He was fighting as if his life depended on it, and it was a truly impressive sight.

A stray laser shot skimmed over the top of her hood, forcing her to duck behind the counter again. The sounds of gunfire and screams were deafening. She covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. There was a terrible pain in her skull, and the loud noises were not helping. But this was not the kind of pain that came from a normal headache. This pain was like the hammering fists of some nightmare beast trying to break free from a deep, dark cave in her subconscious mind. She clutched her head to hold it in, but the beast only pounded harder and chanted a single word with each strike.

_Samurai … Samurai … Samurai … _

"Shut up." she groaned. "Just shut up."

"But I did not say anything…" the confused bartender said.

One after another, the bounty hunters dropped like flies. Jack was not surprised by this. Most of the bounty hunters he fought were usually not very good at their jobs. It was rare for any to come close to beating him, and they were the ones who were able to use their brains as well as their weapons. Unfortunately, one of these hunters proved to be slightly smarter than his friends. The bat-like creature, the last hunter still standing, opened his mouth wide and emitted a screech so loud and powerful that the sound waves knocked Jack off his feet, across the room and into a wall. Stunned, he slid to the floor in a heap.

The hunter cackled gloatingly. "Take that, samurai!"

_Samurai … Samurai … Samurai … _

"Shut _up!"_ Tetsuko growled, still clutching her pounding head. By now she was making the bartender nervous.

Jack's ears were still ringing from the sonic screech, but he managed to pull his aching body off the floor and get back on his feet. The bat-like creature opened his mouth again, preparing to screech again, but Jack was quicker. Snatching a fallen plate from the floor, he threw it like a discus at his opponent, where it became firmly lodged between the creature's jaws. That gave him the time he needed to finish the hunter off and finally end the battle.

As he sheathed his sword, Jack surveyed the wounded bodies and broken things on the floor and realized Tetsuko was nowhere in sight. For a moment he feared she might have gotten carried off by the panicked mob. Then he heard the bartender calling to him from behind the counter. "Sir! Come quickly! Is something wrong with your friend!"

Jack immediately dove behind the counter to find Tetsuko curled up on the floor in a trembling ball. She was clawing at her skull with her metal fingers and groaning in agony. This was highly unusual. Even the strenuous agony of her arm repairs had not driven her to this kind of behavior. What was going on? Was this some kind of unforeseen reaction to the operation? Confused and worried, he looked at the bartender for answers. "What happened? Is she hurt?"

The bartender shook his great head helplessly and spread his hands. "I don't know! Vun minute she is yelling at me, next minute she is like this!"

Something terrible was happening here, that much was certain. Jack dropped to his knees and took hold of Tetsuko's shaking body in the hope of calming her down. "Tetsuko, please tell me what is wrong!"

"J-Jack?" she whimpered, prying her eyes open to look at him. At once the nightmare beast resumed its pounding with even greater force. The pain of her arm surgery had been terrible, but it was nothing compared to this. Her face twisted into an anguished grimace as she wailed and squeezed her skull again, hunching over so far that her face nearly touched the floor. Gritting her teeth, she attempted to form words but all that came out were strangled grunts.

_SAMURAI … SAMURAI … __SAMURAI__… _

Suddenly she screamed and arched backward, causing her hood to fly off her head. Her short hair fluttered around her head wildly and her pupils were shrunk down to tiny dots. Then, just as suddenly, she fell silent and slumped forward.

The bartender's four eyes grew as big and round as ping pong balls. Jack stared in horror at the unconscious woman in his arms. She was so motionless that it was only the sound of her steady breathing that suggested she was still alive. Very cautiously, he leaned closer to get a better look at her face. No signs of consciousness. "Te…Tetsuko?" he said, hoping she might react to the sound of his voice.

From out of nowhere, a hard steel fist punched his jaw. Surprised, he pulled back and touched the throbbing spot with his hand, staring wide eyed at the woman in front of him. Her arm was still raised from the follow-through of the blow. Then she turned her head and looked at him. Her eyes were glowing with a bright red light.

For a moment Jack was too shocked to do or say anything. Then there was a flash of light against metal as her other fist came flying toward his face. He barely moved in time for it to miss him and crash through the wooden shelf next to him. As he started inching away from her, she pulled her left arm free from the shelf and swung it at him again. This time he sprang out of the way completely and landed a few feet away.

She stood up very slowly and stared back at him with an empty red gaze, completely devoid of any emotion. Two identical twin blades snapped out from the sides of both her forearms, stretching from elbow to wrist, looking exactly as they did in the diagrams back in Gus's shop. She began to walk forward. She took no notice of the broken glasses, bottles and bounty hunters on the floor. Her movements were stiff and mechanical. Her expressionless red gaze was unblinking.

Not taking his eyes off of her, Jack carefully lowered his hand to his sword. He began to sweat. This could not be happening. Gus could not have been right. It was not possible. She was not his enemy. "Tetsuko…" he said in a shaky voice. "What has happened to you?"

_To be continued …_


End file.
